The Expert Podcast

This is why vehicle titles are so important and why a lot of export vehicles that come from auctions are highly prone to title investigations. This is an article about vehicles that were stolen in the U.S. and were exported to another country, later discovered in Europe. When people steal vehicles in the United States, it's very difficult to title them in the United States because that VIN number, or serial number, is flagged as stolen. If you go to any state—all 50 states in the U.S.—they will access a federal record system called the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System. It will come up as stolen, and you can't title it.

Even if the vehicle is not stolen, if there's a lien on it—say somebody has a fifty-thousand-dollar car with a fifty-thousand-dollar lien—you can't sell it. However, if you ship it to another country, you can stop paying the lien, and the car might be able to be titled. To prevent this, the United States has measures in place. Unlike many other types of commodities, when a vehicle is shipped and exported, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), part of Homeland Security, inspects vehicles on the way out. Usually, you think of Customs inspecting items coming in, which they do, but vehicles are also checked on the way out to ensure that no vehicles are leaving that shouldn't be, such as those that are stolen, have liens, or have other problems.

What people will often do is try to get these vehicles out by hiding them inside a container. A vehicle doesn’t need to be packed in a container—it can simply be shipped on a vehicle transporter. However, by hiding it inside a container, labeling it as auto parts or something else, and burying it underneath other items, they can avoid inspection and prevent the VIN number from being found. In some cases, these vehicles are discovered at the destination. For example, the Spanish version of U.S. Customs discovered these vehicles, contacted CBP, and confirmed they were stolen.

This is why stolen vehicles are often exported quickly—to get them out of the country before they can be tracked. Many of these vehicles have trackers on them, and port facilities have high-tech methods to discover vehicles hidden inside containers. These include x-ray technology, dogs trained to detect vehicle scents, and other tools. Authorities often catch batches of 30–40 vehicles at a time leaving the country. Some of these vehicles aren’t truly stolen but have liens on them.

Here’s the reasoning behind this: if you bring a vehicle to another country and try to title it with the VIN number, many countries will check U.S. VIN numbers to see if the vehicle is stolen. They won’t title a stolen car even in another country. However, liens are often not checked. This creates an opportunity for individuals to take high-end vehicles with liens, ship them overseas, sell them for cash (even at a discount), and pocket the money.

Customs plays a crucial role in combating title fraud or title washing. The VIN number sticks with the vehicle, making it difficult to do much with it in the U.S. But if the vehicle is shipped overseas or across the border, individuals can often try to obtain ownership of it and extract its value—whether it’s a stolen vehicle, a vehicle with a lien, or one with a bad title. In countries that don’t subscribe to U.S. title research or background systems, title defects are often not a significant issue.